Former governor Jim Edgar will be Marshall County Lincoln Day Dinner speaker

Friday

Mar 21, 2014 at 9:26 PM

Gary L. Smith of the Journal Star

TOLUCA — Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar will be the featured speaker at the annual Marshall County Republicans Lincoln Day Dinner at Mona’s Italian Restaurant in Toluca on April 7.

Edgar, who was governor from 1991 to 1999, had spoken at the event when in office. Local organizers were excited to have him accept an invitation this year, said Charles Owens of Henry, a precinct committeeman who contacted the former governor in his current position at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

“We were really thrilled,” said Owens, a retired pharmacist who had once run for lieutenant governor after Edgar’s tenure. “A lot of people didn’t think he would come, but I said it’s our job to ask him, and it’s his job to say no if he doesn’t want to.”

Owens said he thought it would be valuable to hear from someone as respected as Edgar at a time when a new Republican is trying to take over the governor’s seat. A news release noted that the Chicago Tribune had once said Edgar’s “instincts and motives were as sound as those of any governor the state has had.”

“A lot of people probably don’t remember him, especially younger voters,” Owens observed. “But he was a very good governor. If Bruce Rauner could be as good a governor as Edgar was, that would be great for the state of Illinois.”

The dinner will start at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, and can be purchased from Owens or Jean Goldner of Henry, or from dinner chairman Mike Mendola, PO Box 275, Wenona, 61377, (815) 853-4782.

Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Read his Northern Circuit blog at pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Glsmithx.